MUSKEGON, MI – With the weather this winter the way it is, shoveling your driveway may seem like a full-time job.

But keeping snow off the Muskegon County Airport this winter actually has been more than a full-time job for seven men.

“It gets pretty straining on the crew,” said Muskegon County Airport Manager Marty Piette. “I would say they’ve been working for pretty much two months straight.”

This week, with mild temperatures and light snow forecast, the crew may have a rare chance to rest.

A steady stream of lake-effect snow this season has been delivered by an Alberta Clipper storm system. For months, Piette's staff been stretched, rotating in shifts so that there are almost always at least two of them work scraping the pavement. Individual crew members have logged 15-30 hours of overtime a week, only grabbing one day a week off.

“It’s pretty tense out there,” said maintenance worker Craig Kruzel.

The crew at all times this winter has battled the possibility of having to shut down the airport. Maintenance worker Dustin Fox uses that threat to motivate himself.

“It’s ... just knowing that we’re making it safer for other people,” he said.

Airports are more challenging than roads to keep safe in storms, Piette said. During a given snowfall, the crew doesn’t wait for snow to accumulate, starting its work scraping and snowblowing as soon as the weather hits.

A landing airplane tolerates ice even worse than cars or trucks. Pavement should be “absolutely barren” of snow or ice.

“We’re looking at over 1 million square feet of pavement surface that has to be kept clean,” Piette said.

The Federal Aviation Administration imposes more strict guidelines than exist for city streets. The airport has a formal snow and ice removal plan filed with the FAA – and it cannot include the use of salt, which would corrode aircraft parts.

Snowfall means the group mobilizes a caravan of vehicles. First is a big truck with a 20-foot plow blade. Second is a truck with a bristle-broom attachment. When snowbanks need to be lowered or edged to make room for the aircraft’s wingtip clearance, the crew has access to a 6-foot-tall, 12-foot-wide snowblower -- that beast can move 5,000 tons of snow in an hour. The crew also uses smaller snowblowers and even shovels to keep landing lights and signs visible at all times.

The team members have learned to rely on each other. The seven-man team includes Kruzel, Fox, Dave Haack, John Bowler, Mike Austgen, Kevin Cunningham and Tim Nash.

“We have a really good team ... we don’t have the biggest staff,” Fox said.